The Trulliometer must be low right now //Toyota mess up a pit stop during the Spanish Grand Prix

Something we failed to mention in this week’s show, and something I’m sure we’d have had a lot to say about, is the Toyota pit stop bungle.

Glock and Coulthard had a coming together in Spain, as anyone who gets near Coulthard runs the risk of doing, and there was some damage to the Toyota. Therefore, the mechanics all scrambled to the pit box, ready to receive their car and make the necessary fixes.

Only, they called in Trulli instead.

They stood there, scratching their heads and wondering why the front wing wasn’t damaged at all.

Trulli went on his merry way, probably not very merry at all in fact.

I don’t understand how this happened. Very often, I find myself saying: “Oh, what a pit stop error, they should know better by now,” but at some stage you have to accept that mistakes happen. Lollipops get lifted and Barrichello loses front wings. This error, however, highlights a fundamental point when you are racing two drivers.

You must be able to tell them apart.]

Part of the confusion may have been that Trulli was behind Webber, so the crew could see a Toyota following a Red Bull and, elsewhere on the track, a Toyota following a Red Bull. But surely there is data being fed to the team that shows, oh, I don’t know, a slow sector time, or the crazy effects that banging into another car will offer up? Surely they have screens telling them where their driver is on track compared to others? And most of all, surely they can tell the difference between the helmets? I thought it was only me that needed a wall chart.

Poor Trulli. If I was him, I would be so mad. Presumably he was just following orders when told to pit, and in doing so, he was effectively handed a drive through penalty. Only this time he had done nothing wrong.

Afterwards, Trulli was pretty diplomatic about the whole thing.

A communications error led to the team mistakenly calling me into the pits. These things happen but that cost us two precious points today.